Donald Berwick, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, in 2015: ‘The Scottish Patient Safety Programme, marks Scotland as a leader, second to no nation on earth, in its commitment to reducing harm to patients, dramatically and continually.’

It’s just one more piece of evidence that the Scottish economy is on a fairly steep upward curve. As unemployment falls and business confidence rises (see previous reports here) the demand for office space and for staff have soared. See:

Not surprisingly the demand for office space and for staff correlates with an increased demand for industrial space. See this from the Scottish Business News Network yesterday:

‘The commercial property firm [Colliers] found that prices for prime industrial space rose on average 7.7% in the 12 months to July 2017, compared to a rise of 2.3% in the UK as a whole, to the current Scotland average of £7.59 per square foot (psf). Current UK average is £8.68 psf. Colliers believes that demand for industrial units is being driven by two key factors: the growth of online shopping and therefore delivery and distribution centres; and the recovery in manufacturing which is now accelerating due to the weak pound. Glowacz said that firms that need large units are likely to build their own or have them ‘built to suit’.

No doubt this could be cast as a problem by Unionist politicians and media but I think most entrepreneurs would see it as an opportunity to be exploited. Falling rents would mean a recession surely, Kezia, Ruth?